Running: How to Reduce Stress and Injuries

We just kicked off a great promotion on Facebook: The The AthleticFoodie Compact Blender Giveaway. We’re planning to give a way one Cuisinart Compact Blender package to each of two winners. (Click “Read more” below for a link to enter.) This is a really nice unit. With it, you’ll be able to make healthy smoothies, crush ice, grind seeds or nuts. You can use the portable cups from this 15-piece set to take your nourishing shakes to the gym.  It sports a powerful motor that operates at two speeds plus pulse. Each blender comes with a BPA-free tritan 32-ounce blender cup, an 8-ounce chopper cup and a set of four 16-ounce “To-Go” cups.

You can’t win unless you enter, though, so be sure to “Like” our Facebook page and enter.

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Protein Basics

Protein is an important part of our diet because not only does it keep us full at meals, but it also has many important, necessary biological functions.   The most common forms of protein from foods include: meat, poultry, fish, soy, eggs, milk, and legumes.

Protein aids in building and repairing muscle, as well as regulating bodily processes. Because of the way it is metabolized, it is an inefficient source of energy.  One of the biggest misconceptions is that consuming more and more protein will build more and more muscle.  Unfortunately, this is untrue and our bodies can only effectively handle 20-30 grams of protein at a time.  (20-30 grams of protein might look like a cup of Greek yogurt + ½ cup of trail mix.)

This means that the athletes that drink a 60g high-protein shake following a workout are really only able to use about half of that amount.  Since your body must get rid of that extra protein it cannot use, you are essentially just creating “expensive urine,” and making your kidneys work harder to excrete it.

One point to remember is that protein is also not calorie-free, so you are also at the risk of consuming too many calories.  These excess calories will be stored as body fat!

Protein Recommendations

The RDA protein recommendation for the average person is 0.8 g/kg body weight (~55 grams of protein for a 150 lb person).  However, for athletes and body builders, more protein may be required for optimal performance.  This may depend on each individual, the type of athlete, and his or her goals.  For a more specific target range, consult a Registered Dietitian for individual protein needs and proper nutrient timing.  For the average person, remember to focus on varying your sources of protein, choosing lean/low-fat proteins, and including more plant-based proteins.

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We’ve been putting a focus on our Facebook page for the last several months with great results. We’ve popped up to just a few “Likes” shy of 7,000. Sweet! People are starting to post links, questions and photos. We love it.

The questions we post often get nice response. (Thanks for that) So the next time you’re on Facebook, stop in and join our conversation. Our page is becoming an important part of the churning conversation that makes AthleticFoodie fun.

By the way, we’re launching another giveaway on Facebook starting Monday. This time we plan to give away TWO grand prizes. You have double the chance to win. Be sure to stop in and take a look next week.

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I traveled to Austin this past week to see my grown kids…What a treat.  I really love visiting them.  It also usually means a lot of pleasurable work, though.  Mostly for Garrett.  I have spent the last three days cooking for him.  I try to cook in bulk and freeze meals in individual containers.  Some of you are thinking…why would “AthleticFoodie’s” mom have to cook for him?  He is suppose to be this amazing amateur culinary wizard.  Well he is.  The problem is, he leads this crazy life.  He really has no time.  His diet is so clean and pure with only healthy foods, that the simple act of cooking is incredibly time consuming with lots of time standing in the kitchen. It can be hard on a swimmer’s legs. Between his training, working on his business, doing charity work, giving swim clinics and cooking classes, it leaves little time for himself.

Eating healthy does require more effort than simply running into your local grocery store and buying some processed foods to eat. The hardest part is finding one store that sells everything I need. I am always on a mission. I read every label for salt, fat and sugar content. I am convinced that if more people would start to eat more nutritiously, our grocery stores would make more of an effort to make eating whole foods convenient to purchase.  Please let your voice be heard at your local food stores.

If you’re single or your family is away, do you like to cook intricate meals just for your self?  If you’re like me, the answer is no.  I have always loved cooking for the family or for dinner guests, no matter how large the crowd is.  It feels more rewarding than cooking for one.  Here in lies the nuances of cooking in bulk.  First I decide on what recipes I am going to make. Then I make a shopping list and compute the quantities I will need to buy, based on the number of portions I want to make.  Then I’m off to the store.  When I finally get home and start to cook, I turn on my music, set out all my cooking utensils and my Cuisinart and go at it.  I feel like I’m conducting a symphony.  Me and my music.  I prefer to cook alone.  Too many cooks in the kitchen make for a cranky chef.

Four days and nearly $300.00 later, Garrett’s freezer is stocked with 40+ meals.  Now all he has to do, is remember to take a container out in the morning to defrost and BAM…a nutritious home cooked meal, ready to eat, with only a few minutes heating in the microwave needed.  I tried to make the “offerings” varied.  Garrett doesn’t eat a lot of meat and what he does eat is mostly bison.  So I cooked him bison stew, three different variations of chile, some vegetarian and some with ground bison, and a pasta sauce with ground bison.  For the vegetarian chiles I used a variety of beans. I like to cook them in a pressure cooker which greatly reduced the cooking time. All the variations had lots of different vegetables, some roasted, others steamed…all healthy. They included onions, garlic, red and green peppers,butternut squash, chiles, mushrooms, yellow squash and zucchini.

When Garrett was going to college, I would visit him for a week at a time, and cook in bulk, just like this week.  It is a wonderful way to spend time with those you love.  Anyway we can help our kids, is always worth it.  It’s why they turned out to be caring, loving adults that strive to give back.  Leading by example in life always results in a positive rewarding outcome.

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From the AthleticFoodie Test Kitchen:

Lots of people criticize vegan and vegetarian recipes as not being hearty. Sometimes that can be true. Not with the black bean and bulgur wheat chili we made recently. This one definitely sticks to your ribs. It’s based on “Vegetarian Chile” from the 1992 version of “The Moosewood Cookbook by a renowned author of vegetarian and vegan recipes, Mollie Katzen.

You’ll have to buy the book to find the complete recipe. Here are the changes we made:

• Substituted black beans for kidney
• Used one tablespoon of Ancho Chili powder instead of two regular
• Doubled the tomatoes
• Used two cups of tomato juice and a little water
• Added two squares of Ghiradelli “Intense Dark 86% Cacao” chocolate.

We certainly have nothing against meat chili. This recipe uses bulgur wheat (basically cracked and par-boiled wheat) as a substitute for meat. It’s a simple, cheap and all-natural way to create a hearty lunch or dinner for any athlete looking for a vegan option.

Our cooks used black beans because we like them. We added chocolate in part for it’s health benefits but largely because it is a classic addition to chili and adds a richness to the flavor. Changing ingredients and proportions and adapting recipes to our liking is something we do often. You should try it.

Our black bean chili is a work in progress. We intend to post the recipe when we have it finalized. Meanwhile, pick up a copy of the Moosewood Cookbook. It’s a classic. Whether you make the recipes as is or tweak them to your liking, there is a lot of good eating between the covers.

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In my experience as a consulting dietitian as well as in everyday life, I come across many people who are trying to lose weight or change their body composition.  While their efforts are commendable, they are often doing themselves more harm than help in the way that they are going about changing body composition.  What is the most common diet mistake that individuals make in their attempts to lose weight? In my opinion, eating too FEW calories ranks as the number one diet mistake.  Yes, you read that correctly… eating too few calories can be just as detrimental to your weight loss efforts as eating too many calories!

This concept is very difficult for most individuals to grasp, as we have always been told that you have to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight.  This is true up to a certain point… after that point, if your calories dip too low, your body will tend to hold on to weight.  This is a defense mechanism (your body is smart) to prevent starvation.  Your body requires a certain amount of calories just to carry out the normal functions of living.  The point at which this slowing of metabolism occurs is when calories fall below the RMR, resting metabolic rate.  Once you go below that number of calories, you are setting yourself up for failure.  Yes, people can lose weight on a 1200 calorie diet; however, this weight loss is not usually sustainable, and most individuals will gain the weight back once they start eating more.

Another problem with eating too few calories is that it sets individuals up for overeating.  Most people can’t sustain eating a very low calorie diet for long.  They usually end up binging from becoming too hungry.  Eating too few calories can eventually lead to more serious health problems, such as low blood pressure, heart arrhythmias, electrolyte imbalances, anemia, bone loss, depression, hair loss, loss of menstrual cycles in females, and the list goes on.

If you are concerned about how many calories you should be eating, consult a Registered Dietitian.  They can help you come up with an individualized plan for healthy weight loss (1-2 pounds a week).  Don’t forget that exercise is also an important factor in weight loss efforts.

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Have you ever thought about where fresh produce from your local grocery store comes from? If you pay attention to the stickers or labels, then you will probably notice that not all of it comes from our own state or region alone, wherever you may live.  Here in Texas, much of our produce comes from Mexico, California, and other neighboring states or even countries.

Many Americans already know about the importance of recycling, reducing carbon emissions, and living a “greener” lifestyle in efforts to create more sustainable living on our planet.  If you haven’t already started to, you can easily “go green” starting from your own kitchen!

Think about this: produce in grocery stores that is not in season locally must be transported from other parts of the world where it can be grown during that time of year.  The further the produce travels, the more gas and energy it requires getting it to you, and this can usually drive up the price.

Nutritionally speaking, there is actually a difference in the nutrient value between seasonal and non-seasonal produce.  Often the fruits and vegetables traveling from far away must be picked earlier, lowering the nutritional content.  Produce is highest in nutrients and antioxidants when picked at its ripest point.  A study published in 2008 from the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition found that seasonal broccoli had twice the amount of Vitamin C as non-seasonal broccoli!

The difficult part is knowing exactly what is in season currently, especially since many items appear on the shelf year-round.  I browsed a few websites and found this produce calendar guide from EatWellGuide.org to be very helpful.  This site will direct you to a local website that lists current seasonal produce in your area: http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?id=Seasonalfoodguides# .

So, if you haven’t already checked out a local farmer’s market, I urge you to make an effort to cook seasonally from your local grocery store. Help the planet and get the most from your fruits and vegetables—it’s a win-win situation!

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A majority of us will start the new year off with big plans of losing those holiday pounds, making healthier meal choices, and getting to the gym more often. We will start off strong, start to like the way we feel and look, and then OUCH! Sidelined by that nagging knee pain, sore back, shoulder strain, or heel pain. We will try and tough it out and convince our self that “No pain, No gain” is the way to push on. Most people will stop their activity, rest a few days or weeks, only to return to the gym with the same pain. I tell my clients “if your car is making a horrible screeching noise when you drive it, do you just put it in the garage let it rest a few weeks, then pray the noise goes away the next time you start it up?” You take it to a mechanic and run diagnostics to figure it out. Your body is no different!!

I would like to share with you briefly one of those tools that I use as a PT to find the cause of the problem, explain the sources, and determine effective treatment. It is called Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA). It is a comprehensive assessment used to classify how we move and then direct manual therapy and exercise interventions. A SFMA evaluation looks at everyday movement patterns like touch your chin to chest, touch fingertips to floor, reach overhead and bend backwards, perform a deep squat, stand on one leg to name a few. These are some very basic movement patterns we all should be able to perform from the “cradle to the grave.”

SFMA takes a very global approach to why for example a runner might have knee pain. Is it a tight hamstring, weak quads, poor core control, lack of ankle mobility, poor running posture? Should we stretch, get a massage, do more squats, use a foam roller? Which one should I do? These are the questions I get all the time. SFMA simply helps me better prescribe the correct solution for each person. The number one risk factor for injury is a previous injury. Or put another way, once you have had an injury your body is moving in patterns that are compensatory in nature. Even though it may be subtle it is still there. If that runner does not address the cause of the knee pain it may come back in the form of Low Back pain one day. So, this year resolve to take care and figure out those nagging pains. It will change your life!!!!

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From the AthleticFoodie Test Kitchen:

What better way to spend a cold and blustery day than experimenting with some admittedly unusual pizza? That’s what we did this past week with delicious results.

Homemade pizza is regular fare at our house. This time, though, we decided to try something quite different: A crust of Sprouted 7 Grain Pizza dough from The Sprouted Bakehouse.  We had already been sampling a free selection of their breads and rolls after a package arrived at our doorstep to test (Love the raisin bread!)  but had not dug into the pizza dough. I pulled a package out of our freezer one recent morning and tossed it onto the counter.

You thaw and “proof” this dough like any other. It rose nicely and smelled great. It did not look like your average pizza dough. Whole grains are very apparent throughout. I was a little worried about rolling it. Would it be rough or clumpy? No, as it turned out. I couldn’t get the crust to quite as thin as one made from conventional flour, but it made an acceptably thin crust, stayed in place rather than springing back and wasn’t sticky. Nice! When cooked, the crust tasted great. It was light and soft yet crispy enough to hold its shape when you picked up a slice. The dough added a hearty flavor.

We have been experimenting with various combinations of a squash, mushroom and caramelized onion pizza. It’s a pretty tasty combo. Rather than cubes of butternut squash, I used dollops of acorn. (You really can’t cube it due to the fluted shape.) While cleaning the squash, I had the idea to clean and roast the seeds to add texture.

Here’s the basic recipe for two 12-inch (about) pizzas:

• Your favorite pizza dough.
• 1 medium onion
• 1 medium shallot.
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped.
• 1 1/2 cups mushrooms. I used Porcini.
• 1 cup mashed acorn squash.
• Cleaned seeds from squash.
• 1/3 cup olive oil liberally seasoned with ground basil and ground thyme.
• 1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• Canola oil

Caramelize the onions and shallots in a medium pan with canola oil. As the onions begin to brown, add 1/4 cup of vegetable stock and sugar. Continue to cook slowly until mixture is nicely browned. Remove onions and shallots from pan. Do not clean pan.

Toss chopped mushrooms into the pan with the remaining vegetable stock. Cook several minutes until tender.

Half and clean squash. Microwave squash halves with “open” side down until soft. This will take seven minutes or so.

Separate the squash seeds from the guts as best you can and transfer them to a bowl of water. Use your fingers to clean the seeds, rinsing a few times. Then roast until brown in an open pan with just a little canola oil. Add garlic when the seeds are browned and cooked for a couple minutes just before you turn off the heat.

Preheat a pizza stone in your oven to 500 degrees. If you do not have a stone, preheat the oven to 500 degrees and use a cookie sheet as your base for the pizza.

Roll out the pizza dough. Be sure to flour your surface to keep the dough from sticking. Roll the dough as thin as you personally like.

Lightly paint the raw pizza dough with the seasoned olive oil. Sprinkle ingredients onto the crust.

Sprinkle a cookie sheet with dry cornmeal to transfer your pizza from the rolling surface to the oven or to go directly into the oven. If using the stone, toss a little dry cornmeal onto it just before sliding the raw pizza into the oven.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy!

You can add cheese or whatever else you like, of course, but this recipe makes a great pizza. It’s a great meal for any athlete.

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